Posted by Man, I have been looking for another really good LitRPG, and I’m so happy to have gotten this as a review request!
Plot:
The book opens with an elderly man making lesser Golems out of toys and stuffed animals, you watch as Threadbare is created and starts to come into consciousness. It’s actually a really neat way to experience a character, at first Threadbare has no real mind, he can’t perceive what he’s looking at or understand what or who he is – but little by little he starts ‘leveling up’ and as he does, the more he begins to understand about the world.
He soon makes enemies with the cat after a serious misunderstanding, and it was a riot to read about.
The first 15% of the book or so is Threadbare exploring his surroundings and getting to know his new ‘master’ – a young 11 year old girl named Celia.
After that, the real plot takes off – someone is after the elderly man and his secrets, they now he’s trying to create a Greater Golem which has the capability of becoming sentient and intelligent. A woman has teamed up with some demons to try gain access to his research to use it for their own devices.
There’s a lot of action going on, Threadbare seems to keep getting himself into trouble, good thing his Adorable Level is off the charts, and his Luck stats aren’t too shabby either 🙂
Final Score: 11/15
Character:
Threadbare is a loveable main character, he’s so innocent and from the start he has benign intentions. Even when his ‘brain’ wasn’t fully formed and his thoughts were mostly instincts, one of the first things he does was try to help out another hurt Golem toy.
He’s made an incredible bond with his master, Celia – who is also adorable and spunky. Celia is the elderly mans daughter, and they live together in a cabin in the woods far away from anyone else. She’s rather sheltered but she’s sweet and smart and determined to show her father she’s capable of taking on big tasks. And she is, really, she’s resourceful and clever.
Pulsivar is the family cat, and omg do I love this character. Typical cat, he’s guilty of nothing, gets into trouble, and is overall a snarky ass even though he doesn’t “talk”. Pulsivar was there when Threadbare came into being, and after the elderly man left, the cat got into mischief and knocked over some shelving which landed on some toy Golems. Threadbare went to go help, and accidentally ripped the toy Golem in half in an effort to try and rescue him. Pulsivars reaction is as follows:
“Pulsivar wasn’t entirely sure of the particulars of this situation or whose fault it was, (definitely not his though,) but he was pretty godsdamned sure of two things; One was that he was stuck in this workshop until his human came back, so he couldn’t escape. Two was that he’d just seen that teddy bear straight up murder a fucker.”
Final Score: 14/15
World Building:
This is a litRPG with moderate ‘stats’ in the main text, it’s not as heavy as some of the LitRPG’s – as Threadbare explores his world, he will gain INT when he figures something out, or STR when he lifts something heavy. It goes along with the text and doesn’t bring me out of the moment all that much. Some people really hate stats in LitRPG’s, in this book they are moderately heavy for the first 15% of the book, light for the next 15%, and then scattered a little bit throughout the rest of the book. For me, it wasn’t bad at all.
In this world, people level up like they do in video games, but life wasn’t always like that – it happened about 40 years ago and no one really knows why.
You can only choose a set number of life skills, so choosing your profession in life is a big deal. Celia’s father is very hesitant to teach her new things like Cooking, because she could click “Accept new Profession” and be stuck with that choice for the rest of her life – and she’s only 11.
There are other races in this world, Dwarves are mentioned, and you get to meet a family of Orcs/half Orcs. Celia’s mentor in learning how to be a Scout has married an Orc woman and has a few sons.
Dungeons randomly spawn as well, and if a dungeon gets too dangerous people are sent to shut it down and destroy it. The dungeons can spawn very powerful monsters and they can wreak havoc on the small towns in the surrounding area.
Normal animals have also mutated, there are giant birds that can snatch small kids, there are giant and territorial Raccants which are mutated racoons.
You level up your skills faster if you’re presented with real danger, rather than just practicing, and almost everything has levels. At first, when this new system came into the world people thought it was a blessing… but as time went on they realized that they eventually maxed out on their leveling abilities… but the monsters kept going. It presented a real problem for a long time until people learned that by combining certain “professions” they could “unlock” new things and continue to level up.
Final Score: 13/15
Pacing:
This book started out really interesting, I love non human POV’s and this POV is by far one of the most unique I’ve read. I loved getting to see how he developed from a non-thinking being into a sentient creature. There’s tons of action through the entire book so I just kept turning pages to see what happened next. Solid pacing from start to finish.
Final Score: 15/15
Writing:
Holy shit this was a funny book, it hit all the right things for me, especially with the cat. It also managed to be warm and sweet as well, I adored Celia and her antics. There were a few grammar errors, but fewer than a handful and nothing all that glaring. This was a very fast paced straightforward way to write, which is typical for a LitRPG.
Final Score: 12.5/15
Originality:
I’ve read a fair amount of LitRPG, and most of them have to do with online gaming, many many books actually have the title include “Online”. I love it when it’s taken in a different direction and a world is built out of it rather than a video game you get sucked into. The main character was totally unique, and the way it was written was also very original. I really liked this one.
Final Score: 13.5/15
Personal Enjoyment:
You can probably tell from my review this one struck a chord with me. This book set out to be a funny and heartwarming book and nailed it. This is a “popcorn” book, but it’s the best kind of fancy popcorn.
Final Score: 10/10
Audience:
Do you want a funny as shit LitRPG with a non-human POV? Do you want a fast-paced book with a lot of action and fight scenes? How about demons and villains trying to steal a recipe for a Greater Golem so they can build an army? Yes? Read this book.
Final Overall Score: 89/100
Sounds both fun and adorable (<3 teddy bears). Enjoyed the review!
it was really cute, hit all the right spots for me